Mechanically operated knitting machine



Nov. 19, 1935. F. G'AST MECHANICALLY OPERATED KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 21, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Nov. 19, 1935. G. F. GAST 2,021,301

MECHANICALLY OPERATED KNITTING MACHINE Filed July 21, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. .2.

FIG. .3.

INVENTOR Patented Nov. 19, 1935 UNITED STATES MECHANICALLY OPERATED KNITTING MACHI George F. Gast, Jersey City, N. J.

Application July 21, 1933, Serial No. 681,419

16 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of and means for knitting, and more particularly to a device in which the stitches are formed over a series of pins adjacent to an opening through 5 which the knit fabric is passed as it is completed.

The usual practice to produce cylindrical fabrics, such as cord commonly known as horse rein, is to use a body plate of suitable form such as a spool provided with mesh holding arms 10 mutually related and formed, to allow the insertion and manipulation of a hand knitting needle. An object of the invention is to provide a simple and efficient device for mechanically producing a knit fabric heretofore produced by 16 hand.

The above object is accomplished in accordance with the features of the invention by means of a knitting machine having a rotatable forming plate with a plurality of mesh holding arms or hooks mounted therein, and means to drive and hold said plate in predetermined positions. A hook or needle is driven in a given path, the locus of which resembles a figure 8 with a flat bottom and the parts are so arranged and related that 25 after the needle has thrown a new purl over a pair of the hooks on the forming plate, a partial rotation of the forming plate brings the next pair of hooks in front of the needle and a purl is thrown over these hooks. The operation is con- 30 tinued, forming a rounded fabric without interrupting or slackening the production of finished fabric in the machine.

The invention may be better understood by referring to the following detailed description 35 and the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the device; Fig. 4 is an end elevational view; Fig. 5 is a sectional view of the forming plate, showing the path of the knitting arm or hook; 45 Fig. 6 is an enlarged plan view of the forming plate showing how it is threaded, and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of another type of forming plate for'producing a flat fabric.

Referringto the drawings which illustrate a 50 preferred embodiment of the invention a housing 24, a'thread container 4| and a tensioning standard 35 are mounted on a base 20 (Fig. 1). A rotatable forming plate II is mounted in a bearing I9 in the base 2|] (Fig. 2). The forming 55 plate II which is spool shaped has a base portion l2 on which a collar or ratchet H is mounted. The collar or ratchet |l has notched out segments l8 as shown in Fig. 3. The forming plate assembly II is mounted in the wrist plate 48 and the bearing l9, then suitably secured on the 5 under side of base 20. In the upper portion of forming plate II are mounted mesh holding fingers or pins |5|5. In the embodiment shown are four pairs, the number of pairs of pins being optional. The number of notches in collar H 10 must correspond with the number of pairs of pins. A slot I6 (Figs. 3 and 6) between each pair of pins |5-| 5 is cut wide enough to allow the hook member 42 to pass through. A circular opening M which has rounded shoulders at the top where the purl is formed, extends entirely through the spool A wrist plate 48 (Figs. 1, 3 and 5) is oscillatably secured to the base 20. A spring pressed holding latch 5| mounted on the base 253 isadapted to move into the notches I8 in the forming plate H to prevent backward rotation of the forming plate A pawl 49 is mounted on the wrist plate 48 and is spring pressed into the notches H! of the collar ll. A link or pusher 41 which is pivotally attached by means of a pin 46 is also fastened to wrist plate 48 (Figs. 3 and 5). A shaft projects through and is journalled in the housing 24. A hand crank lever 29 is secured to one end of shaft 30 and a crank disc 34 (Figs. 1 and 2) is se- 30 cured to the other end of the shaft 38. Adjacent to the crank disc 34 is a cam 44. A gear 26 is secured to the drive shaft 30, within the housing 24. An intermediate idling gear 21 (Fig. 4) which is mounted on a shaft 6|, meshes with gear 26. A gear 28 which is secured to a shaft 3| projecting through the housing 24, meshes with the intermediatergear 21. Gears 26 and 28 rotate at a ratio of 1 to 2, gear 28 making two revolutions to every one revolution of gear 26. Another crank disc 33 is secured to the shaft 3 I, outside the housing 24 and in the same-plane with crank disc 34. Crank pins 36 and 31 are secured to crank discs 33 and 34 respectively (Fig. 2) When the crank pin 31 is at the top of its travel, the crank pin- 36 is at the bottom of its travel. One end of each of links 39 and 38 is carried by and freely rotatable on crank pins 36 and 3'! respectively. The link 38 is three-fourths the length of link 39. The distance between the center of shaft 30 and the 59 center of shaft 3| equals the length of link 39 plus the throw of the crank pin 31. The throw of crank pin 37! is the same as the throw of crank pin 36. The other ends of each of the links 39 and 38 are pivotally attached together at a point 4D. A hook shaped portion or needle 42 is a part of the link 39 and projects beyond the pivot point 49. The hooked shaped portion or needle 42 has a front slanted face 50 and a notched portion 52. The link 41 is pivotally attached to link 5'! by a pin 58 (Fig. 1). The link 51 is secured to one end of the bell crank lever 45, and a spring 53 (Fig. 2) is secured to the other end of the bell crank lever 45. The bell crank lever is pivotally mounted by means of a pin 59 to an upwardly projecting portion of the housing 24.

The spring 53 which has one end secured to the bell crank lever 45, has its other end secured by a pin 54 to the lower portion of the housing 24. The tensioning standard 35 (Fig. 4) has a top portion 23 wherein are mounted pins 22. The thread container 4| is a box, having a cover with a slot leading to an opening 43 through which the cord passes. A weight 25 which has two arms or horn portions 32 is clamped in any suitable manner to the finished horse rein H).

In another embodiment of the invention there is a body plate 55 (Fig. 7) which may be substituted for spool l l to produce a flat fabric instead of the round horse rein type. The body plate 55 will have the same type pins l5l5 and slots IS. A track 56 is used to guide the body plate 55 as it advances by means not shown. A shield 60 (Fig. 7) is mounted on base 29, so that the fabric formed may be pulled over outer edge of base 20 by means of a clamp and weight not shown.

To operate the machine, it is mounted with spool I l overhanging the supporting means. The spool l is threaded as shown in Fig. 6 by passing cord l3 through opening I4 in spool II, the cord then being wound around each pair of pins l5l 5 in an anticlockwise direction. After passing around each pair of pins the feed cord I3 is then passed across the hooked face of pins l5l5, above the already wound portion of the pin in front of hook 42 (Figs. 5 and 6). The feed cord [3 is then passed through the tensioning device 23 (Figs. 1, 2 and 3) and the ball or spool of cord 2| is deposited in the metal case 4|. The first few sets of purls are preferably formed by hand so that the fabric It] may be pulled through the opening l4 sufficiently to allow the weight 25 to be clamped thereto.

When the hand crank lever 29 is turned in a clockwise direction it rotates the cam 44 in a similar direction at the same rate of speed. Each rotation of the cam 44 causes the movement of the bell crank lever 45, against which it rides, to a position as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. The spring 53 returns the bell crank lever to its original position. The movement of the bell crank lever gives an oscillating motion to wrist plate 48. The pawl 49 which is mounted on the wrist plate 48 imparts this motion in one direction to the spool l I by means of the notched collar l'i', as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The collar I! is held after each partial rotation by the holding latch 5|. The amount of rotation of spool is predetermined, in this case a quarter of a revolution, since we have but four pairs of pins. The holding latch is so positioned that it will hold each pair of pins in turn directly in front of the path of travel of the hook member 42. When the hand crank lever 29 is turned it also causes gears 25, 21 and 28 to rotate. Crank discs 33 and 34 being connected to gears 26 and 28 rotate in the same relation. The rotation of these crank discs causes the links 33 and 39 to carry hook 42 in a given path, the configuration of which resembles a fig e 8 with a flat bottom. The rotation of the hand crank lever 29 causes the hook 42 to be carried as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5 between the pair of pins l5l5 through the slot [6. The hook 42 allows thread l3 to slide over its slanted face 50 and is caught in the notched portion 52. Thus the hook 42 sweeps between the pins i5, catches the strand E3 and carries it out, clearing feed cord, and over pins l5, forming a purl with the feed strand I3 which could not pass over pins, because of the hooked form of the pin. When the hook 42 has completed one cycle, the spool is rotated again through one-quarter revolution as described above. Thus the strand It is produced by a continuous rotation of the hand crank lever 29.

It will be obvious that the embodiments herein disclosed are only illustrative and not exhaustive of the invention and may be varied in many ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a knitting machine, a rotatable forming plate, a plurality of pairs of pins on said forming plate, a reciprocating hook, a cam and link arrangement for rotating said forming plate to bring each pair of pins in succession in front of said reciprocating hook and means for moving said hook between the individual pairs of pins.

2. In a knitting machine, a rotatable forming plate, a plurality of pairs of pins on said forming plate, a reciprocating hook, and means comprising a cam and link arrangement for rotating said forming plate to bring each pair of pins in succession in front of said reciprocating hook and means for moving said hook between the individual pairs of pins.

3. In a knitting machine, a forming plate, a plurality of pairs of pins on said forming plate, a hook, means for consecutively moving each pair of pins into operative relation with respect to said hook and a crank and link arrangement for moving said hook between the pair of fins in operative relation with respect to the hook.

4. In a knitting machine, a forming plate, a pair of pins on said forming plate, a hook adapted to move between said pins, and means to drive said hook comprising a crank for imparting horizontal motion to said hook and a crank and link arrangement for imparting vertical motion to said hook.

5. In a knitting device, a mechanically operated hook and a body plate having an annular series of pairs of pins for supporting the meshes of the fabric knitted, and having apertures between said pins to facilitate insertion of the mechanically operated hook which travels in a given path, the configuration of which resembles a figure 8 with a flat bottom.

6. In a knitting device, a body plate having an annular series of pairs of pins and. apertures between said pins, a hook or needle which travels in a given path, forming a purl each time it passes between one of the pairs of pins, and cam and crank means to rotate the forming plate, so that each pair of pins is positioned consecutively before the hook or needle.

7. In a knitting device comprising a body plate for forming the fabric, and a hook or needle which travels in a given path to form purls with the cord as it is being fed to the forming plate, and cam and crank means to drive the forming plate in the desired direction before the needle.

8. The combination, in a knitting device of pairs of pins mounted in a body plate, which is rotatably mounted in a bearing, and so synchronized as to rotate in an established relation with the movement of a hook which travels between the pairs of pins in a given path to form a purl, the configuration of the path of the hook resembling a figure S with a fiat bottom.

9. A knitting machine comprising a supporting structure, a plate rotatably mounted thereon, a circular series of spaced fingers carried by said plate and adapted to retain windings of yarn around the series, an operating shaft rotatably mounted in said structure, a ratchet carried by said plate, a pusher mounted in said structure for actuating said ratchet, a cam carried by said shaft for actuating said pusher, a needle movably supported in said structure and adapted to loop the wound yarn over said fingers, and means connected to said shaft for operating said needle.

10. A knitting machine comprising a supporting structure, a plate rotatably mounted thereon, a circular series of spaced fingers carried by said plate and adapted to retain windings of yarn around the series, an operating shaft rotatably mounted in said structure, mechanism operated by said shaft for intermittently turning said plate, a needle carrier movably supported in said structure, a needle carried by said carrier and adapted to loop the wound yarn over said fingers, and crank means operated by said shaft for actuating said carrier.

11. A knitting machine comprising a supporting structure, a plate rotatably mounted thereon, a circular series of spaced fingers carried by said plate and adapted to retain windings of yarn around the series, an operating shaft rotatably mounted in said structure, a ratchet carried by said plate, a pusher mounted in said structure for actuating said ratchet, a cam carried by said shaft for actuating said pusher, a needle carrier movably supported in said structure, a needle carried by said carrier and adapted to loop the wound yarn over said fingers, and crank means operated by said shaft for actuating said carrier.

12. In a knitting device, comprising a body plate for forming the fabric, a hook or needle which travels in a given path to form purls with the cord as it is being fed to the forming plate, and means for rotating the forming plate to a desired position, said last mentioned means including a wrist plate associated with the forming plate and a spring pressed pawl carried by the wrist plate. 1 r

13. In a knitting device comprising a body plate for forming the fabric, a hook or needle which travels in a given path to form purls with the cord as it is being fed to the forming plate, means for rotating the forming plate, and a spring pressed holding latch for holding the forming plate in the desired position.

14. In a knitting device comprising a body plate for forming the fabric, a hook or needle which travels in a given path to form purls with the cord as it is being fed to the forming plate, and a spring pressed holding latch for holding the forming plate in the desired position.

15. In a knitting machine, a rotatable forming plate, a plurality of pairs of pins on said forming plate, a moveable hook the'configuration of the path of which resembles a figure 8, a crank and link arrangement for moving said hook between each pair of pins, a cam and link arrangement for consecutively moving each pair of pins in front of said hook, and a latch for holding the forming plate in the desired position.

16. In a knitting machine, a rotatable forming plate, a plurality of pairs of pins on said forming plate, a reciprocating hook, and means comprising a cam and link arrangement for rotating said forming plate to bring each pair of pins in succession in front of said reciprocating hook and means for moving said hook between the individual pairs of pins comprising two crank discs, and a link secured between one of said crank discs and said hook, the other of said crank discs making two revolutions for each revolution of the first mentioned crank disc.

GEORGE F. GAST. 

